AWID made a statement at the 34th HRC session to highlight the importance of protecting cultural rights in times of increasing religious and right-wing fundamentalisms.
At the 34th session of the Human Rights Council the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) gave a statement in support of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. Her report highlighted the threatening emergence of religious and right-wing fundamentalisms that try to undermine the universality of cultural rights as well as human rights.
AWID “note[s] with concern the rising trend of states and non-state actors who use arguments based on anti-rights interpretations of religion, culture and tradition to roll back fundamental rights – particularly women’s rights and gender justice – and justify state impunity” and agrees that everyone has the right to take part in cultural life.
The final recommendation for states is to “safeguard and protect cultural rights on a basis of equality”, and for United Nations bodies “to support efforts to oppose rising fundamentalisms and extremism”.
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